the mounting posts to lower the body, ( Lowering the car's center of gravity) and wheel wells were enlarged to allow the use of wider tires. Playing Mantis brought back the pancake motor buy equipping the bodies with a reproduction of the Aurora Tuff Ones chassis, which was the original chassis that Aurora updated with wider rear tires, independently rotating and wider spaced front wheels, and a faster pancake armature. These cars copyright 2001 - 2004 (12 referenced from the product package) continued with the shared names Thunderjet 500, Tuff Ones, and Johnny Lightning. The new chassis had most of the chassis parts interchangeable with the original Aurora Tuff Ones. 2003 brought on the release of another line of cars, sharing the names X-Traction and Johnny Lightning with a reproduction chassis that was part for part compatible with the Aurora AF/X magnetraction chassis and pancake motor. (13 referenced from the product package) This chassis had thicker motor magnets that expanded down into openings in the bottom of the chassis, bringing the motor magnets closer to the metal electrical rails in the track. The magnets pull the car down to the track rails to give the tires more traction, giving the car more speed and higher speed cornering. Some racers liked the faster speed, but others preferred driving the non-magnetraction cars. When driving the non-magnet cars too fast into a curve the rear end of the car drifted around the corners before reaching the point of spinning out or crashing off the track, leaving the driver a danger zone they can drive hard into. The magnetraction cars did not have this drift and the driver had no warning they were in the danger zone when suddenly they crash out. RC2 In 2004, Playing Mantis was bought by RC2 Corporation and Playing Mantis disappeared. Johnny Lightning products were then produced and distributed by RC2 in Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. RC2 started as Racing Champions and produced NASCAR die-cast models. Carrying over from the Playing Mantis era was designer and author Mac Ragan who was responsible for many of the popular models and had written a comprehensive guide to Johnny Lightning cars called Tomart's Price Guide to Johnny Lightning Vehicles (2001). Ragan and Tom Lowe were inducted into the Diecast Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2005 RC2 brought in a popular automotive and die-cast designer, Eric Tscherne. Tscherne previously